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Saturday, 26 February 2011

Gee-Gees, Hawks pull off road upsets

Ottawa 85, Toronto 60 Dominating the glass and shooting 14 for 29 from downtown, the visiting Gee-Gees booked their trip to Hamilton for the OUA Final Four with a convincing win at Toronto in which they jumped out to an early 16 point lead, holding the Blues to only 9 first quarter points. 6'6" Warren Ward went 5-8 from downtown, finishing with a game-high 25 points while adding 8 boards and 5 assists. 6'2" freshman Johnny Berhanemeskel added a 5-9 effort from 3. Ottawa had 20 offensive rebounds and led 44-21 at the half, holding the Blues to 29% shooting. 6'5" Alex Hill led Toronto with 17 as the Blues shot only 8 for 31 from beyond the arc. Ottawa faces Lakehead in one OUA semi-final next Friday night at McMaster in Hamilton.

Laurier 85, Windsor 82 6'5" Kale Harrison banked in a three in the last minute to break a tie after the Lancers had come from 6 down with 2 1/2 minutes remaining to give the Golden Hawks a dramatic win in Windsor. Once again, the ability to defeat the same team three times, especially with all the games coming late in the year, proved to be a formidable challenge as the Lancers disappointing season came to an end. 6'6" Maxwell Allin had 36 points for Laurier including a long 3 that gave the Hawks the six point lead late. But the Lancers were not done, scoring the next 6 points culminating in a pair of clutch free throws by 6'3" Isaac Kuon, who scored 28 points in the final game of his career. Then Harrison banked an unlikely 3 from about 4 feet behind the arc, shocking the Lancer faithful and when Kuon missed a good look at a 3 on the subsequent possession, the Golden Hawks exhaled. Later, Allin went 4 for 4 from the free throw line, both times with it being a one possession game and when 6'0" Josh Collins missed a game tying three at the buzzer, the Hawks were through. Harrison had only 9 for Laurier with the made banked 3 his only make from 3 point land while 6'8" Lien Phillip had 14 points and 11 rebounds for Windsor. Freshman Jamar Forde had 14 points in 36 minutes for the Golden Hawks. Laurier faces Carleton next weekend.

Lakehead 63, Western 49 One of the more underrated parts of the Thunderwolves game is their ability to lock teams down defensively, especially late in games. This trend was evident again tonight as Lakehead held the Mustangs to 28% shooting including only 4 for 22 from 3 to pull away in the fourth quarter. The Mustangs scored only 8 points in the final 10 minutes and had only 4 points in a listless 1st quarter. Lakehead forced Western point guard Ryan Barbeau into 8 turnovers and only 3 for 14 shooting. 6'6" Yoosrie Salhia led the way for Lakehead with 19 points while 6'1" shooting guard Jamie Searle, playing the final game of his career in the Thunderdome, had 14 points, 14 rebounds and 7 assists. Lakehead faces the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees next weekend in one OUA semi-final.

Carleton 97, Ryerson 73 5'10" fifth-year senior Mike Kenny hit back-to-back 3's late in the second quarter to break open what had been a reasonably tight affair and 5'11" Willy Manigat (24 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists) dominated in stretches defensively, getting to the rim and knocking down clutch 3's as the Ravens remained undefeated. 6'3" freshman Phil Scrubb was also instrumental in the win despite going to the bench early with 2 fouls, as he had 16 of his 20 points after halftime, adding 5 assists while making several very good decisions offensively as Carleton used their draw and kick game to go 12 for 27 from downtown. Ravens jumped out to an early double digit lead but the disciplined Rams got it going behind 6'3" freshman Jordan Gauthier and 6'1" freshman Jahmal Jones, climbing back to within 7 early in the second. Rams sunk back into an active zone that initially helped create some turnovers and difficult shots but Carleton eventually found 6'6" Tyson Hinz in the middle of the zone and Manigat and Kenny got loose for open 3's allowing Carleton to go into halftime up 16. The Rams, playing with Head Coach Roy Rana ailing bad with a severe case of food poisoning, maintained their composure for the most part as 6'3" fifth-year senior Ryan McNeilly hit some bombs from the perimeter and Rye played hard right to the end. The Ravens also dominated on the glass, grabbing 15 offensive rebounds and shot 47% from the field.

OUA Final Four Matchups
Laurier vs. Carleton
Ottawa vs. Lakehead
Both games next Friday night at McMaster University in Hamilton

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

The Carleton-Ryerson game wasn't bad, despite the fact Carleton won by over 20.Ryerson competed hard and stayed with the Ravens for much of the game.The officiating almost ruined the game.48 fouls called...that's over a foul per minute.The worst ref was the crew chief, a 4'11" twerp who felt he had to call EVERYTHING.Man, this guy had a Napoleon complex.Ottawa blowing out Toronto was no surprise at all.It was pretty evident over the last month or so that Toronto was fading and Ottawa was surging.Ironically, Ottawa meets Lakehead again in the playoffs with a berth in the national tournament on the line.Interesting that Max Allin led Laurier to their upset over Windsor with 36 points.Max's older brothers played for Windsor.

Carleton's road to the #1 seed just got a lot easier. IMO, Windsor was the only team capable of upsetting the Ravens (and a small chance at that.) Regardless of the fact that Laurier held the Ravens fairly close in Waterloo, the Ravens have matured into a juggernaut since then while the Hawks have been like a yo-yo.

I can see the Gee-Gee's knocking off Lakehead; they are quite possibly the most improved team in the country since the Christmas break.

The picture is starting to clarify for the CIS seedings, baring a miraculous upset of Carleton and slightly less miraculous upset of Cape Breton:

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I enjoy Canadian University basketball and with this blog hope to contribute to sharing as much as information about CIS basketball as possible. Please share your comments and suggestions, positive or otherwise, by emailing marek.wacyk@sympatico.ca I also advise others on their financial well-being with RBC Dominion Securities as an Investment Advisor www.markwacyk.com